EU proposes energy and water rating labels for big data centres

The European Commission proposed rules requiring European data centres of 500 kilowatts and above to disclose energy and water efficiency under a new EU labelling scheme, as Brussels plans to roughly triple data-centre capacity to support AI while worrying about grids and water.

HARDWARE desk — Europe is trying to grow AI compute capacity and force transparency on the power and water those buildings burn, before any hard efficiency floors land.

The proposal targets facilities with a capacity of 500 kW and above. Operators would have to disclose energy and water efficiency using an EU-designed labelling system. 500 kW means 500 kilowatts of IT load — the power the computers inside the building draw, not the offices around them.

The scheme does not impose limits on total energy or water use, and it does not require data centres to disclose their total power use. A label that says how efficient a building is, is not a cap on how much it may burn. None is in the rule Reuters describes.

Operators would also disclose how their water use sits against water stress in the local area, and whether they can offer services to the local energy system, such as reusing waste heat. Water stress means the local area is already short of water. Waste heat is leftover warmth from the servers, which a site might send into a local heating network.

Why Brussels is moving, still Reuters: the EU wants to triple its data-centre capacity over the next seven years, to support artificial intelligence and to cut reliance on US Big Tech. That growth, Reuters says, risks straining power grids, depleting water, and raising CO2 emissions if the buildings’ energy and water use is not controlled. The rating scheme is meant to make efficiency public, so companies have a reason to build cleaner facilities.

Scale, still Reuters, citing an EU report from June: data centres currently account for around 2.5% of EU electricity. That share is expected to jump. Capacity is expected to more than double by 2030, to 28 gigawatts from 12 GW last year. A gigawatt is a billion watts — the size of a large power plant or a whole computing campus, not one server. They are two different sentences in the same wire.

Euronews, the same day, uses a different clock for the growth aim: Brussels wants to triple data-centre capacity by 2035. It also cites EU figures that European data centres used 68 terawatt-hours of electricity in 2024 and are expected to use 114 TWh by 2030 — about 3.2% of EU electricity, up from 2.5%. A terawatt-hour is a year’s worth of electricity.

EU countries and lawmakers have two months to object, Reuters says, or the rules enter into force. Publishing the text on 21 Sep 2026 is not the same as stickers already on the buildings.

Minimum performance standards are still planned later. Euronews says the Commission is stopping short of a hard ceiling on energy or water, and that minimum performance standards — a floor, so new facilities are not built below a set efficiency — will be announced in 2027, according to a Commission official. Reuters says the new label could be a precursor for mandatory minimum standards the EU is still developing. The label is a transparency step first.

Those are not in the Reuters account of the rule.

Plain English for the rest of the card: kW = kilowatts of IT load, the power the computers inside the building draw. GW / gigawatt = a billion watts. TWh / terawatt-hour = a year’s worth of electricity. delegated regulation = a Commission rule that can enter into force unless EU countries or the European Parliament object. labelling scheme / rating scheme = a public efficiency label, not a cap on power or water. water stress = the local area is already short of water. waste heat = leftover warmth from the servers. This filing is the published rating scheme. It is not a consumption ceiling.